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An Activist’s Advent Calendar

by Pandora Longstreth

English PEN and The Howard League for Penal Reform have come together this festive period to bring you their #BooksforPrisoners advent calendar.

For each day this December, leading up to the 25th, a different influential writer, as well as supporters of the Books for Prisoners campaign, will recommend a book that they would send to a prisoner and why. This interactive online#BooksforPrisoners advent calendar, launched by English PEN and the Howard League for Penal Reform, will feature writers and activists including Monica Ali, Esther Freud, David Hare Meg Rosoff and Jake Arnott all in support of the Books for Prisoners campaign.

“The Books for Prisoners campaign seeks to reverse the restrictions on families and friends sending books to UK prisoners, introduced in 2013. This will be the second seasonal period that family and friends have been unable to send books and other packages to loved ones in prison. You can read more on the English PEN campaign page or Howard League for Penal Reform websites.”

Visit the advent calendar every day this month to discover what #BooksforPrisoners have been recommended and why.

Today you will find Monica Ali’s #BooksforPrisoners recommendation:

“A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole, because it’s a comic masterpiece, and because only a confederacy of dunces could have come up with this policy.”

English PEN and the Howard League for Penal Reform are also inviting supporters of the campaign to recommend the books that they would choose to send to prisoners and why via the hashtag #booksforprisoners.